The UN says the death penalty is an extreme form of punishment that, if used at all, should only be imposed for the most serious crimes, “after a fair trial that respects the most stringent due process guarantees as stipulated in international human rights law.”

In July 2014, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “Death penalty has no place in 21st century” and urged countries to stop the practice.

Currently, more than 160 UN member states have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it. But there are still dozens of countries that carry out death sentences.

In December 2014, the Guardian analyzed Amnesty International data and concluded that at least 1,722 people were sentenced to death in 58 countries in 2012, which showed a decrease from 2011 with 1,923 executions in 63 countries worldwide.

Last year, China had the highest rate of the executions. Amnesty believes thousands were executed.

The other countries topping the list were Iran, with 289 officially and at least 454 unannounced executions; Saudi Arabia, with at least 90 executions; Iraq, with at least 61 executions; and the US, with 35 executions. The United States is the only G7 country that still executes people.

According to The Washington Post, Amnesty International data shows that in 2014 the number of death sentences handed down experienced a dramatic increase but there was a drop in the number of executions carried out.